For Thee, O Dear, Dear Country

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For thee, O dear, dear country

Author: Bernard, of Cluny (1145); Translator: J. M. Neale (1858)
Published in 274 hymnals

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Representative Text

1 For thee, O dear country,
Mine eyes their vigils keep;
For very love beholding
Thy holy name, they weep.
The mention of thy glory
Is unction to the breast,
And medicine in sickness,
And love, and life, and rest

2 O one, O only mansion!
O Paradise of joy!
Where tears are ever banish’d
And smiles have no alloy;
Thy loveliness oppresses
All human thought and heart,
And none, O Peace, O SIon,
Can sing thee as thou art.

3 With jasper glow thy bulwarks,
Thy streets with emeralds blaze;
The sardius and the topaz
Unite in thee their rays;
Thine ageless walls are bonded
With amethyst unpriced;
The saints shall build thy fabric,
And the cornerstone is Christ.

4 The cross is all thy splendor,
The Crucified thy praise;
His laud and benediction
Thy ransom’d saints shall raise;
Upon the Rock of Ages
They build thy holy tower;
Thine is the victor's laurel,
And thine the golden dower.

5 O sweet and blessed country,
The home of God’s elect!
O sweet and blessed country
That eager hearts expect!
Jesus, in mercy bring us
To that dear land of rest,
Who art, with God the Father,
And Spirit, ever blest.

Source: Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal #424

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Author: Bernard, of Cluny

Bernard of Morlaix, or of Cluny, for he is equally well known by both titles, was an Englishman by extraction, both his parents being natives of this country. He was b., however, in France very early in the 12th cent, at Morlaix, Bretagne. Little or nothing is known of his life, beyond the fact that he entered the Abbey of Cluny, of which at that time Peter the Venerable, who filled the post from 1122 to 1156, was the head. There, so far as we know, he spent his whole after-life, and there he probably died, though the exact date of his death, as well as of his birth is unrecorded. The Abbey of Cluny was at that period at the zenith of its wealth and fame. Its buildings, especially its church (which was unequalled by any in France); the serv… Go to person page >

Translator: J. M. Neale

John M. Neale's life is a study in contrasts: born into an evangelical home, he had sympathies toward Rome; in perpetual ill health, he was incredibly productive; of scholarly temperament, he devoted much time to improving social conditions in his area; often ignored or despised by his contemporaries, he is lauded today for his contributions to the church and hymnody. Neale's gifts came to expression early–he won the Seatonian prize for religious poetry eleven times while a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1842, but ill health and his strong support of the Oxford Movement kept him from ordinary parish ministry. So Neale spent the years between 1846 and 1866 as a warden of Sackvi… Go to person page >

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First Line:	For thee, O dear, dear country
Title:	For Thee, O Dear, Dear Country
Latin Title:	O bona patria
Author:	Bernard, of Cluny (1145)
Translator:	J. M. Neale (1858)
Meter:	7.6.7.6 D
Source:	Latin
Language:	English
Notes:	Spanish translation: See "Por ti, oh patria amada" by Federico J. Pagura
Copyright:	Public Domain